Never Forget
by General Kitty Girl
Summary: This is the story of the Independence Day of 1913. While many celebrate the 4th of July with jubilation and mass displays of patriotism, it shouldn't be forgotten that not all American Nation Days were spent in the sunlight of peace. **Cover Art by Cayran**


**~Never Forget~**

One hundred and thirty-six years ago, he and his country had signed the document of charges against King George and embarked on the road for liberation. Seven years later, he forced his former father and master to acknowledge that American independence was no longer a dream.

Seventy-eight years after that, the still young United States of America had nearly fallen apart.

It was a hard realization to swallow.

Standing before the mirror, tying his black tie, Alfred looked at the results of everything that had happened up until this moment. Almost fifty years had passed since 1865, but even so the gruesome war of countrymen tearing each other apart had taken its toll. He was still thinner than before the war, still a little paler and his eyes a little more solemn. His heart still pained him now and again, and sometimes he found himself unable to breath under the weight of the hate between what had once been two divided sections of his being. He still had nightmares of battles he'd never participated in, yet felt every footstep of the armies marching, every body hitting the ground, and every bleeding pool sinking into the earth of his land as it happened. The echoes of those memories would remain with him forever, he knew…but he hoped with time it would get easier to deal with…

For the moment, Alfred straightened his waist coat over his starched shirt, took hold of the jacket hanging on the back of the chair beside him, and slid his arms into it before buttoning it over his torso. He detested wearing suits, but today he had little choice, as it was a request of his Boss that he might look "presentable" for the ceremonies about to take place.

It wouldn't be his first Fourth of July since the war, but it would be the first he attended in a more official capacity with his President.

His stomach tightened as he adjusted his last sleeve and looked at himself again in the mirror. He was anxious…no, he was afraid. This was the largest reunion of Civil War veterans since the end of the conflict, and today, on the soil of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the soldiers of the North and South would come together in commemoration of their fallen comrades, the present peacetime, and the future ahead… all on America's most celebrated national holiday.

The depth of bad blood between what had once been the Union and the Confederacy stemmed from a long list of ideological and geographical differences…differences Alfred knew would not be resolved for a long, long time to come.

Alfred exited the tent he'd been allotted on his arrival, one of the many now standing on the fields of Gettysburg, and looked out at the vast camps set up around him. Everywhere from Seminary Ridge to Emmitsburg was populated with people, some still wearing the uniforms of their allegiance while others wore the attire of unified civilian life. Alfred slid his slightly shaking hands into his pockets and took the first steps among them. The path from his tent to the Great Tent, as it was being called, was quite a walk, but Alfred tried not to think about it as he felt the atmosphere of the people around him.

Alfred usually didn't let on just how much he could sense when interacting with others, but in truth he had just learned that he could get away with more by faking a complete inability to do so. When he had been a colony of England, people would often forget to censor things during meetings because they assumed he was still too childish and carefree to understand. The image was most useful when someone caught him eavesdropping or spying on a conference he was not meant to know anything about. People always seemed more willing to let things slip or forgive him when he played ignorant, but when it came to his people…there was no denying what he knew or felt.

At present, his hands were shaking even more, eyes darting to and fro, and the tension in his body was a reflection of the Army regiments he knew were near by and ready to move in at the first hint of trouble.

Alfred kept a careful pace as he treaded upon the ground of one of the fiercest battles of the Civil War. Even in this modern time with such a mixture of men who had once been foes, Alfred worried the ghosts of odium would arise and peace would be shattered. However, the more he walked, listened, and sensed the world around him…the further and further away the ghosts he feared seemed.

Campfires burned outside of tents housing men from different States and cities all over the country. There was the sound of a distant fiddle playing from the direction of the Georgia camp, and the sound of a fife from somewhere north of Delaware. The smell baked pecans from the Carolinas blended perfectly with the scent of fresh apple pies from New Hampshire. A jubilant shout from the Virginia camp was echoed by the men of the former Maryland regiments, all accompanied by laughter and exclamations for another round of cards. By the time the New York and Alabama camps came into view, the smell of burning tobacco and the words of old men reminiscing had steadied Alfred's hands and had him holding his head a little higher.

His eyes were a little younger, and his heart felt a little lighter.

The Great Tent was open and massive in size as he stood before it. The interior was filled with great long tables lined with men sitting and feasting as still more people continued to refill plates and glasses. Children from young organizations across the States were between aiding the adults setting more places for the veterans, and huddled in groups around old men telling the stories of their pasts. As a backdrop to it all, a giant flag bearing the forty-eight stars of the country hung behind a podium the President would soon stand to deliver his speech.

Alfred looked up at the Stars and Stripes and couldn't help but think…that forty-eight was a far better number than thirty-five.

A chime resounded through the tent as instruments rose to call attention to the front. Alfred, not wanting to deny an old soldier his seat, leaned against one of the tent posts and watched as all occupants rose when the President made his appearance on the stage.

His twenty-eighth boss since coming into nationhood; a man just sworn in not four months before, but a man determined to see that his country was better for its decision to vote him into office.

Applause rose to as the President took his place, and slowly fell as the veterans took their seats and wait for their leader's speech. A hush descended, and then the man at the podium spoke.

"_I need not tell you what the Battle of Gettysburg meant. These gallant men in blue and gray sit all about us here. Many of them met upon this ground in grim and deadly struggle. Upon these famous fields and hillsides their comrades died about them. In their presence it were an impertinence to discourse upon how the battle went, how it ended, what it signified! But fifty years have gone by since then, and I crave the privilege of speaking to you for a few minutes of what those fifty years have meant_."

Fifty years. The freshness of the memory made it seem like yesterday, but Alfred knew he wasn't the only one who felt that way. Almost fifty-four thousand veterans stood upon this ground today, almost all of them for the first time without a rifle in hand. Small memorials to friends and family lost upon this ground rivaled the number of tents housing the living, and no place was greater memorialized than the Pennsylvania State Monument standing at the center of this hollowed place. Thirty-four thousand, thirty names were forever immortalized on the great bronze plates surrounding the base of the tallest monument in Gettysburg. Atop the great structure stood the goddess of victory and peace, and every inch of her, from her sword held high to her bare feet, was made from the very cannons that once ripped the landscape of America asunder.

It was to be a symbol of a past never forgotten, and a hopeful future to come.

"_We have found one another again as brothers and comrades in arms, enemies no longer, generous friends rather, our battles long past, the quarrel forgotten—except that we shall not forget the splendid valor, the manly devotion of the men then arrayed against one another, now grasping hands and smiling into each other's eyes. How complete the union has become and how dear to all of us, how unquestioned, how benign and majestic, as State after State has been added to this our great family of free men_!"

Free men…That desire had sparked the fire that grew into the flames of that brought about the war of his nation's birth, and nearly brought about its death. His North, the industrialized powerhouse of social and technological advancement, had come to represent a threat to the ways of life in his agricultural and traditionally run South. As his colonies had rebelled to protect their rights and in defense of a home they had begun to see as separate from their sovereign, so too had the South seen the need to secede from the North to preserve what they had always valued as their identity.

The doubled edge sword of pride and freedom…

His chest was beginning to tighten again.

"_We are made by these tragic, epic things to know what it costs to make a nation—the blood and sacrifice of multitudes of unknown men lifted to a great stature in the view of all generations_…"

It was at that point that Alfred looked up and his eyes met his President's. From across the great space of the tent, his mortal leader had found him amongst the crowd with no trouble. Every word the man spoke was for the veterans and the country built in the footsteps of the war they spilled their blood for…

Including him.

"_I have been chosen the leader of the Nation. I cannot justify the choice by any qualities of my own, but so it has come about, and here I stand. Whom do I command? The ghostly hosts who fought upon these battlefields long ago and are gone? These gallant gentlemen stricken in years whose fighting days are over, their glory won? What are the orders for them, and who rallies them? I have in my mind another host, whom these set free of civil strife in order that they might work out in days of peace and settled order the life of a great Nation. That host is the people themselves, the great and the small, without class or difference of kind or race or origin; and undivided in interest, if we have but the vision to guide and direct them and order their lives aright in what we do_."

To live life as it was meant to be lived. To enjoy and forever respect and love the freedom that had come at such a cost time and time again. Every war began and ended with the need for freedom in mind. Every struggle and hardship endured was to ensure the future was brighter than the present. People flocked to the shores of America in pursuit of a better life, and as the country was unified once more…so too were the freedoms granted to all just as the founding promise had been written.

Alfred didn't need to see the faces of the people around him to know that they reflected the words of their President. He didn't need the visual confirmation that people smiled and radiated optimism and pride for the first time in a long time. No man fought and died just because he was told to…there was always a purpose buried deep within his heart that kept him fighting…

Family, brothers-in-arms, defense of an ideology, freedom…

Each of these men had enlisted and fought for something; today, that something laughed and begged one more dance on a grandfather's feet, a son cultivated fields defended by his father's hand, and a tender first love held a smile still as beautiful aged as it was at first sight.

Old soldiers had fought their battles, both in proving that the spirit of freedom was timeless and in unifying a nation. It was time to pass the torch…and let others defend this hard fought unity and peace.

"_I would not have you live even to-day wholly in the past, but would wish to stand with you in the light that streams upon us now out of that great day gone by. Here is the nation God has built by our hands_…"

Alfred quietly pushed off his post and began to walk towards the opening of the tent, passing through it as the last words spoken ended with an eruption of applause and cheers.

"_Lift your eyes to the great tracts of life yet to be conquered in the interest of righteous peace, of that prosperity which lies in a people's hearts and outlasts all wars and errors of men_."

_Forever Proud, Forever Free, Forever the Home of the Brave_

_Here's to a bright and prosperous future, America_

_Happy Independence Day_

* * *

><p><em>Notes from the Author<em>:

I know I'm a day late with this, but sadly life cannot be put on hold even for a holiday. Please forgive any errors in this story and know that I wrote half of this a few hours before work, and the rest after a 12 hours shift before I had the chance to sleep. T_T

To begin, I'd like to wish all my fellow Americans a Happy Independence Day, and to all of those around the word sending us your well wishes…thank you. I decided to forgo a conventional Birthday Celebration story because not all of our 4th of July's in America have been celebrated as such. In its young life, America has gone through more conflicts within and without that have shaped and helped define who and what we are. Our history isn't always pretty, but I'm proud of my place of origin and the title 'American'. :)

That said, let's get on to the notes!

-Though the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, America was not fully recognized as its own nation until the Treaty of Paris signing in 1783, where England officially released all claims to the colonies and granted America its autonomy. Still, we Americans continue to celebrate the day we first unified and came together for a common cause – that unity being the Second Continental Congress and that cause being the demand for rights and freedom in the eyes of the British Empire.

-If you don't know about America's Civil War, know that it was a major event in American history that still echoes in our modern society today. The Southern States (called the Confederate States of America/Confederacy) sought to secede from the Northern States (who retained the name United States of America/Union). Issues related to the secession included slavery (which was still legal and widely practiced in the South, while the more technologically advanced North and Abolitionists kept an unfavorable view of it), the expansion of industry, the view of an elitist North, and (of course) lots of political disagreements. By 1861, the Civil War broke out and resulted in almost five years of intense fighting and the greatest loss of American lives in any war before or since (even the World Wars). The Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was the furthest the Confederate South ever came to taking the Unionized North. The battle began July 1st and ended on July 4th (Independence Day), and had the single greatest number of casualties in the entire war. The North claimed victory at the end, forcing the South to retreat on the fourth day of fighting, but was so crippled at Gettysburg that they could not pursue or continue fighting for some time. President Lincoln (President of the country/Union leader during the war) came to Gettysburg after the battle and gave his famous address on the grounds. Fifty years to the day after the last bullet at Gettysburg was fired, President Woodrow Wilson (our President during WWI which breaks out a year after this event) gave a speech at the 1913 Gettysburg reunion. All of the quotes you see are from his speech, addressed to the soldiers and the people of the nation. In my large WWI fic, "Never Your Hero", I make several references to the effects the Civil War had on America (represented through Alfred) during this era where we were technically still healing. Even today the distinction between North and South is strong, and identifying with either is something ingrained into people. Many of the stereotypes then are still kept alive and believed now by modern people: that the North is full of elitist busy-bodies and the South is full of people living in the past who aren't as wealthy or well educated. As someone born in the North and living in the South, I know I've been picked on terrible for my accent and even called a "Yank" once or twice (in England, many British people referred to all Americans as "Yanks/Yankees", but in America that term is reserved for someone from the North…or the baseball team). But in all honesty, tensions between the two sections of the U.S. aren't as bad as they once were. Many social, political, and economic reforms have benefited both sides and, for the most part, eased relations to something civil and more neighborly in nature. :) Its okay to be a darn proud "Yank" or a homegrown Southerner (called "Johnny's" during the war), most people are cool with that.

-Also, during 1913 there were only 48 stars on the American flag. The States of Alaska and Hawaii were not added until 1959…which complete the 50 States of today's America.

-Just so ya know, the "youth organizations" mentioned were really the Boy Scouts of America, as they were present and volunteers during the Civil War Reunion event. XD Just a fun fact, the Boy Scouts of America were founded just 3 years before then, in 1910.

Short notes for an INCREDIBLY short story by my standards, but I hope that if nothing else ya'll enjoyed the story…and maybe learned a little something. :) As always, I thank my readers, reviewers, favoriters and subscribers and hope I never come to disappoint you. Best to all and a happy and safe holiday!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY, AMERICA! HERE'S TO ANOTHER BIRTHDAY AND ANOTHER BLESSED YEAR!

Sincerely,

_General Kitty Girl_


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